Plans approved to transform a derelict South Shields seafront pub despite around 30 public objections
Councillors have approved the transformation of a former South Shields pub into flats.
Plans to turn a derelict South Shields seafront pub into four homes have been given the green light – despite dozens of objections and a long-running battle over the future of the site.
South Tyneside councillors unanimously approved the redevelopment of the former Water’s Edge pub at Trow Lea, despite concerns about the impact on the coastline and the loss of a once-popular venue.
Public objections to the plan
The pub site was recently put up for auction and an application to transform the site into homes, first submitted back in 2023, was presented to the council’s planning committee for decision this week.
There were around 30 public objections raising concerns about the loss of the public house, loss of privacy for beach users, increased lighting, parking pressures, negative landscape impacts and the potential precedent for more development on the foreshore.
Council planners said the pub stopped operating in 2017 and had since “fallen into a state of disrepair” and argued new housing plans would result in a “wider visual improvement to this important area of the coast”.
The plans were unanimously approved on October 20.
‘There has not been an interest in redeveloping that site for a long time’
Councillor Kate Owens-Palmer noted the building’s “depressing decline” in recent years and referenced previous attempts to bring it back into use.
Although she said introducing four dwellings at the location could be “jarring”, she added the existing pub site’s appearance was also “detrimental to the foreshore”.
She stated: “I do understand the public objections but I can’t find enough material reasons to deny this application, so with a certain amount of reluctance I would support it.”
Councillor Karen Pittuck also said the site had been “derelict for a number of years” and referenced a planning committee report which confirmed housing development had historically been approved on the site.
She added: “The idea that we could have some fantastic venue there, it’s not realistic.
“There has not been an interest in redeveloping that site for a long time and so for that reason I would support it.”
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